Butterflies
by skyewatson
Summary: I prompted myself because I'm a loser and I have no life: A story where Grace systematically destroys any chance of Gabby and Danny staying together without even meaning to.


Gabby likes Grace, the girl is beautiful and absolutely adorable. When Danny had told her she would be meeting his daughter it had made her heart swell. Meeting someone's child was a big deal, especially when it was Danny Williams' child. She knew he was protective of his daughter and that Grace was the most important thing in the world. After all, he had moved 5000 miles away from his family, home and job just to spend a few hours a fortnight with her.

Meeting everyone from Five-0 was almost intimidating in a way. Essentially this was one big meet the family dinner. She really hoped she was making a good impression on them because they had become his Ohana. Gabby could tell Steve would be the hardest to impress but Kono and Chin still worried her, the cousins had the ability to make things hard for her. She hoped they wouldn't, she really liked them and she liked Danny too.

But in the end she knows that if Grace doesn't like her she can kiss any idea of a relationship with Danny goodbye. That's why she's sitting on the sand with the gorgeous little girl and making a butterfly out of sea shells and rocks with her.

"Did your dad tell you where I work, Grace?"

Grace nods. "You work at the museum. Danno told me he and Uncle Steve found pirate treasure and that you know all about it."

"It was actually gold from an old shipwreck but it wasn't real so I guess you're right, it was pirate gold. There's going to be a new exhibit soon and I was wondering if you and Danny would like to get a tour of it before anyone else. You'd be my super VIP guests."

"That would be nice but you have to talk to Uncle Steve," Grace concentrates on where she is going to put her next sea shell, "because he promised to take me to the zoo and I have surfing lessons with Auntie Kono on Sundays at his private beach and Uncle Chin told me he's gonna teach me how to make cocoa puffs even though Uncle Steve says they are bad for you."

"I'll definitely remember to talk to Steve so you don't miss out on that, it sounds like fun."

"It is, Mommy doesn't like that I spend every Sunday with Danno but I have tennis lessons at the country club every Saturday so I think that makes it okay. I don't really like the county club though, I have to wear my good clothes all the time and I like swimming more than tennis. Danno doesn't like swimming but Steve does so it's okay. Sometimes I think he's a mermaid, did you know he gets up super early every day to swim? Daddy complains about it a lot but I think it's cool and I know Danno thinks it's cool too even if he complains that Uncle Steve drips water on the floor and how Uncle Steve never wears a shirt around him."

Gabby tries to sound upbeat. "So you spend a lot of time at your Uncle Steve's house?"

The little girl nods enthusiastically. "Every Sunday and usually the Saturday I get with Danno. It's so much fun and I have a bedroom and everything. It used to be Aunt Mary's but she said it was okay if I had it. She's really nice and she has pretty hair. Next week I get to go get paint for the walls. I can't decide between pink or purple but Aunt Kono said we can decide tomorrow because she got all these colour cards from the store. I'm not sure she was supposed to take them all but Uncle Chin helped her and he doesn't break the rules so I think it was okay."

"I'm sure your Aunt Kono didn't break any rules. I really like this butterfly, should we make another one?"

"That's a good idea, it's not good when someone is alone. I'm really happy Danno isn't alone anymore."

Gabby's heart sings for a moment. "I'm glad you think that Grace."

"It's good because Uncle Steve has been alone for a really long time and now he has someone too. Aunt Kono says Uncle Steve misses his parents a lot and I don't like that cause I miss Danno all the time when I'm with Mommy and it makes me sad. I don't want Uncle Steve to be sad."

Gabby winces, it's like a slap to the face and Grace continues to babble on as if she hadn't just crushed Gabby's feelings. It hurt a lot knowing she wasn't who Grace was talking about but it didn't make her angry at the little girl, she honestly had no idea what her words meant to Gabby. That was the problem with talking to children, they were generally very honest beings who saw a lot more than people have them credit. It was always a gamble because sometimes you heard what you wanted and sometimes you didn't.

"Hey, Grace, did you know there are more than twenty four thousand species of butterfly?"

"Really? That's a lot."

"And they can only see the colours red, green and yellow."

"They can't see pink or blue? I'm glad I'm not a butterfly, pink is such a pretty colour. So is blue and when you mix them together you get purple."

"And the Brimstone Butterfly can live for up to ten months."

"Brimstone? You mean like that stuff from Shrek? That's a silly name for a butterfly."

"It is," Gabby agrees, "especially when it's a beautiful yellow colour."

"Did you know that if you're in the dense forest and someone is chasing you the best thing you can do is try and mislead them? I'm not heavy enough to push any rocks over yet but I can break some plants and tree branches."

"That's interesting, Grace."

The little girl nods and switches out a broken sea sell for a smooth shiny black stone. "You should try to get to the main road if you can but you shouldn't drink the water because some of the water isn't safe."

"Did you learn that in your Aloha Girls? Your father told me you joined them recently."

"No the Aloha Girls doesn't really teach much. I mean it does teach my friend Mandy stuff but that's because her dad has never taken her camping. She doesn't know how to track animals or start a fire from nothing like I do."

"I bet you like showing your friends how much you know." Gabby smiles.

"Not really, I get in trouble a lot. Carol knows things but she doesn't really know and when I correct her I get into trouble. Mommy and Danno say it's disrespectful but Uncle Steve thinks it's funny. He taught me a lot so I wouldn't be behind when I joined the Aloha Girls but now I know too much. And Carol didn't believe me that he is a SuperSEAL, that's what Danno calls Uncle Steve," Grace adds quickly, "so she invited him along to a day trip and he upstaged her. Danny got in trouble with Mommy over that but Uncle Steve said it wasn't nice that Carol called me a liar because I'm not. Danno wasn't too mad at Uncle Steve about it. He doesn't stay angry very long which is good because I don't like it when they fight. Fighting isn't good, it's almost as bad as lying. It's not nice to lie to people and Danno says it's not nice to call people liars even if they are pathological ones like Tommy."

Grace jumped up from her spot on the sand and Gabby turned around to see Danny strolling towards them, hands tucked into his pockets.

"Look Danno! Gabby made a butterfly with me and then we made another one so he wouldn't be so lonely."

Danny smiled. "They're beautiful Grace, did Gabby tell you about the exhibit?"

Grace nodded. "Mmmhmmm but don't forget Uncle Steve is taking us to the zoo."

"I'm sure Steve can work around the exhibit, Monkey."

"But Danno it rained last time we tried to go to the zoo. Uncle Steve said he'd even get me a puppy dog plushie to go with my seal so he isn't lonely."

"Monkey you won't get one of those at the zoo, they don't have dogs there."

"I know but I've been waiting for ever," Grace huffed and then whipped around with an excited smile, "but I think I know what colour I want my room to be. Gabby said butterflies can only see red, green and yellow and I said I'm glad I'm not a butterfly because I like pink. But I was thinking I could paint my room purple because it's a pretty colour and it's what you get when you mix blue and pink together."

"I'm sure Kono will be happy to hear that, she likes purple."

Gabby smiled and took Danny's hand. "It's a nice colour, I like it too."

"Hey Danno do you think I could convince Uncle Steve to paint his room blue? He keeps saying he likes the colour green but I think that's because he wears cargo pants and he knows they annoy you."

"Kono has all the colour cards, baby, I'm sure you could show them to him and he might let you convince him."

"Okay! Because his room is such an icky colour right now and your favourite colour is blue and it's the colour of the ocean and Uncle Steve likes the ocean."

Gabby watched as Grace ran off towards the members of Five-0. The little girl jumped up on Steve's lap and began chattering about what she could only assume was the reasons why Steve should paint his room Danny's favourite colour. Gabby felt Danny squeeze her hand and she looked at him, her heart thudding at his smile.

"Thanks for doing this with her." He gestured to the butterflies in the sand.

"It's okay, she decided on the second one on her own, she said the first butterfly shouldn't be alone."

"Really?"

"Yeah, she also said she's glad you have Steve, she doesn't like it when he's sad and that you make him happy."

Danny frowned. "That might be Kono's influence."

Gabby shook her head and smiled sadly. "It's okay Danny, I get it. You can't help who you like."

"But I do like you." He protested.

"I know you do but over there," she gestured to Grace on Steve's lap, the Five-0 laughing and talking happily, "that's your family. He's a lot better than I ever could be with her and she adores him. She all but told me you love him too."

"She's young Gabby, she also spends a lot of time with Kono and Chin. They make jokes."

"Maybe they're right. But she is young, Danny, and she's a child and that's why you should go. She sees things we don't and you deserve the chance to explore the possibility of being with him."

"I'm sorry Gabby, that you feel like this."

"Don't be, you're a wonderful man Danny and I'm glad we met each other."

It hurt Gabby to walk away but she had to. She wasn't right for Danny and after she would leave Grace probably wouldn't even ask about where she had got to. Steve would be too engrossed in some story to ask. Kono and Chin would probably just trade looks and file it for later. She wasn't meant to be a part of them and as much as she liked Danny it just didn't work that way.

That was why she decided to kiss him on the cheek and leave discreetly. She didn't want to ruin a good night. She wasn't that petty.


End file.
